Beautify Your Brows with Precision

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accentuate, angled brush, arch, biotin, blend, blending, brows, condition, eyebrows, gel, HD Brows Angled Brow Brush, HD Brows Brow Beater, HD Brows Eye and Brow Palette, HD Brows Spoolie Brush, lipids, natural, nourish, overplucking, Panthenol, peptides, plucking, redness, regrowth, Revitabrow Advanced Eyebrow Conditioner, shape, shaping, spoolie, thin, threading, vitamin A, Vitamin C, waxing

Photo by Garin Chadwick on Unsplash

If you’d have taken a poll of all of your female friends a decade ago and asked what they felt was the most important area of their face when it came to their make-up routine, you probably would have got a variety of answers ranging from eyes to lips to cheeks. These days if you were to ask the same people that same question, there is a very good chance that the vast majority of them would answer “eyebrows”. 

In the last few years the focus on brows has become much more intense and many women say they wouldn’t mind leaving the house without any make up, as long as their brows are done. With this in mind we’ve put together a list of five products which create a kit for the perfect brows and will keep your eyebrows in great shape.

Revitabrow Advanced Eyebrow Conditioner

If you are fairly new to working with your eyebrows, there’s a good chance that you’ve probably got quite a thick natural brow. However, those of us who have been doing things to our eyebrows since the 80s, 90s, or even the early noughties have probably plucked their eyebrows into oblivion so that they now barely grow past a thin line! Fortunately Revitabrow has created the Advanced Eyebrow Conditioner which helps to address the visible signs of eyebrow ageing and encourage regrowth, to remedy over plucking. The combination of peptides, lipids, biotin and panthenol combine to create healthier looking more luxurious eyebrows.

HD Brows Spoolie Brush

Most brow experts, whether they be amateur or professional, will agree that the most important tool in your eyebrow kit is a spoolie. A spoolie brush looks like a mascara wand and is fairly essential for shaping your brows and keeping them neat and tidy, however not all spoolies are created equal and many are cheap and abrasive. This Spoolie Brush from HD Brows is specifically designed for blending make-up throughout the brow and is an ultimate for any brow lover.

HD Brows Brow Beater

Once you’ve got your eyebrows to a shape that is acceptable, you will need a product to help keep them that way. HD Brows Brow Beater is a lightweight eyebrow gel which helps to condition your brows and has a completely translucent formula to give you a totally natural finish. It keeps brows in place and can even help, over time, to train your brow hairs to stay in the correct position.

HD Brows Angled Brow Brush

An angled brow brush is another tool which many brow experts will agree is essential to have on hand. This Angled Brow Brush from HD Brows has slimline bristles and natural fibres which are firm enough to create precise lines when shaping your brows but is gentle on the skin and won’t leave any redness even when creating the cleanest lines.

HD Brows Eye and Brow Palette

Our final recommendation for your brow kit is an Eye and Brow Palette from HD Brows. It contains several shades of brow colours, as well as a highlighter to accentuate your brow arch. The powders are silicon-rich and blend beautifully with their silky smooth textures, while also being enriched with vitamins C and A to nourish your brow area while keeping it looking slick.

Why hydrated skin equals happy skin

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acne, ageing and environmental elements, an antioxidant shield, antioxidant rich day cream, balanced and supple, bodies, brains, Broccoli, Camellia, chia seeds, cool blend, daily intake, Decleor Essential Tonifying Lotion, deeper, dehydrated, delicate, Dermalogica Hydrating Lotion r, Dermalogica Phyto Replenish Oil, drink water, dryness, Elemis Hydra-Balance Day Cream, Elemis Superfood Facial Oil, Eyes, flax seed, game changer, good shape, green tea, grey and tired, happy, healthy, highly concentrated plant-based superfoods, hydrate, hydrated, impurities, issue, Jan Marini Transformation Eye Cream, lines, lower eyelids, macadamia, moisture, natural barrier, natural ingredients, natural moisturising factor, natural pH levels, neroli oil, NMF, normal skin, oleic, orchid flower, pores, radish, refreshed, restore, revitalised, Rice Bran, rosemary extracts, saggy, secret, simple, smooth, soften, solve, soothes discomfort, spots, sunflower, superfoods, tamanu, tender, thin, tight, twice a day, ultra-light, visible dehydration lines, Why hydrated skin equals happy skin, working, young skin

The secret to happy skin is a simple one; hydration.

Just like we need to drink water to keep our bodies and brains working properly, our skin needs a daily intake of moisture to keep it healthy and in good shape. As well as skin looking grey and tired, a lack of hydration can make it feel tight, lines look deeper and cell turnover can slow down.

At Pure Beauty we sell a range of fantastic products that keep your skin hydrated and happy, so let’s see what might work for you.

We know that ageing and environmental elements can lead to dryness and dehydration, but the Dermalogica Phyto Replenish Oil uses nature to help solve this issue. First of all, camellia and tamanu oils help restore the skin’s natural barrier, then orchid flower and chia seeds sweep in and smooth visible dehydration lines and lock in moisture. If this wasn’t enough, sunflower, rice bran and rosemary extracts create an antioxidant shield against the free radicals that can do so much damage. This all means you are left with happy, hydrated skin!

You might think that a toner will dehydrate your skin, but this isn’t true. Using the Decleor Essential Tonifying Lotion twice a day balances the skin’s natural pH and leaves it refreshed, revitalised and hydrated. Green tea gently removes impurities and tightens pores, while Neroli oil protects, repairs and fights dehydration.

Even normal skin can become dehydrated and that’s when the Elemis Hydra-Balance Day Cream comes into play. This ultra-light, antioxidant rich day cream gives normal and combination skin ongoing hydration, so it is balanced and supple. It works with the skin’s natural moisturising factor (NMF) to help maintain a balanced moisture level and used morning and night can help you get the skin you love and deserve.

Even young skin can become dehydrated, and even more so if acne and spots are on the scene. We love how the lightweight Dermalogica Hydrating Lotion really helps dehydrated, breakout-irritated skin that is tender and sad. The sheer, easy-to-apply formula soothes discomfort and hydrates thanks to a cool blend of natural ingredients that work with nature, not against it.

The skin around the eyes is super delicate and thin, so it can soon look sad and saggy when dehydration hits. If this sounds familiar to you, we joke not when we say that the Jan Marini Transformation Eye Cream is a game changer. The clever complex visibly improves skin texture and restores hydration around eyes, while helping prevent future damage. When used sparingly morning and evening on the lower eyelids and across the brow bones, this cream can make big changes.

We can’t go without mentioning the fabulous Elemis Superfood Facial Oil. A blend of highly concentrated plant-based superfoods are packed into this beautiful bottle, and means your skin is deeply nourished and hydrated after the very first application. Broccoli, flax seed and radish soften and smooth the skin while macadamia, oleic and poppy seed oils nourish and moisturise. The results are a healthy, radiant glow like no other.

If you would like more help on happy, hydrated skin, get in touch and we would love to see what could work for you.

Team Pure Beauty

How to Re-Grow Your Over-Plucked Eyebrows

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3-4 months, avocado, brows, cycle, Dermalogica MultiVitamin Power Firm, eggs, Elemis Superfood Facial Oil, eyebrows, facial hair, fashion, fish, grow, growing, growth, hair, hair follicles, meat, natural, nutrients, nuts, oil, over-plucking, plucking, protein, reshape, shape, shaping, spinach, sweet potato, thick, thin, threading, tweezing, Vitamin E, waxing

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Here at Pure Beauty one of the ‘beauty truths’ that we wholeheartedly accept is that many things in the world of beauty and cosmetics are cyclical. This can mean that something which was fashionable for years can suddenly become the exact OPPOSITE of what’s fashionable now – and this has never been truer than it is with eyebrows! We all spent the majority of the Nineties and Noughties plucking our eyebrows into oblivion, only for 2017 to be the year of the heavy brow! Many of us have plucked our brows so much that we need a little help growing them back, so here are a few things you can try to give them a helping hand:

Step Away From the Tweezers!

This one may seem like a no-brainer, but you’re going to have to leave the tweezing alone completely for some time to allow all of your natural brows to grow back in. Once you’ve got a full set of eyebrow hairs, then you can reshape them (or even better, let a brow technician do it for you because, let’s face it, you can’t be trusted!) but until then you need to leave them alone.

Massage with Oil

Massaging the area will help in a few ways. Firstly, it will help to stimulate the hair follicles and encourage hair growth. Secondly, if you use an oil like Elemis Superfood Facial Oil it will trap moisture within the skin which your hair follicles need for healthy growth. Lastly, the nutrients within the oil, such as vitamin A and omegas, will also give your skin the vital nourishment it needs to be able to regrow the hairs.

Eat Protein

Hair and nails are made from a protein called keratin which is produced within the body, so it stands to reason that eating plenty of protein will help your body to have what it needs to some serious brow-growing. Things like meat, eggs, nuts and fish are all great sources of protein and will give you lots of hair-growing superpowers!

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is an essential nutrient for hair growth so as well as eating plenty of things which contain it (avocado, sweet potato and spinach, to name but a few), using a topical product like Dermalogica Multivitamin Power Firm can really help. It’s usually intended for use around the eye and mouth area to combat wrinkles, but adding an extra layer on your brows before bed can speed up the hair growth cycles.

Be Patient!

This step is really important! Hair growth usually follows a 3-4 month cycle, which means that from the moment you stop tweezing you may have to wait 16 weeks to see how your brows have grown in. You’re potentially going to look a little bizarre with wild brows in this time, but it’s well worth it and really is the only way you’re going to see what you’ve got left to work with once you stop the hideous cycle of over-plucking.

Ageing Beauty Issues – Thinning Hair

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ageing, blow dry, breakage, conditioner, cool, curling, dermalogica, Dermalogica Daily Cleansing Shampoo, Dermalogica Daily Conditioning Rinse, greasy, hair, hair care, heat, heat styling, oily, scalp, shaft, shampoo, straigheners, straightening, styling, thin, thinning, tongs, volume, volumising, washing

Photo Credit: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-black-tank-top-with-braided-hair-167704/(Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license)

One issue that many of our clients report to us is the feeling that their hair is thinning as they get older. It’s a common issue among women over the age of 40 and had a couple of underlying reasons – hormone changes can cause hair loss, whilst the actual shaft of the hair also thins naturally with age, so even if you don’t get a huge amount of actual loss, the bulk of your hair will feel depleted as you get older. There’s not a lot that can be done to reverse the biological processes which cause these problems, but there are a few things that you can do to improve the appearance of thinning hair, and we’ve got a few of them for you:

Use Lightweight Products

Keeping thinning hair clean is an absolute must because thinning hair will look exponentially worse if it’s greasy, however using heavy, oil-based products will do nothing but weigh your hair down even further, making already thinning hair look heavy and lank. Dermalogica Daily Cleansing Shampoo is a product designed for daily use and contains zero sulphates, whilst Dermalogica Daily Conditioning Rinse adds moisture to the hair without weighing it down, restoring softness and shine for vibrantly-healthy hair.

Use a Soft Brush

When the hair shaft starts to thin out, this will make it more prone to breakage, which could be a disaster for thinning hair. Opt for a brush with soft bristles which will glide through the hair rather than tugging at it and causing breakage.

Think About Your Style

Wearing thinning hair scraped back into a ponytail is only going to accentuate the thinning even more, especially if you can see your scalp through the hair. Wearing the hair loose and bouncy by blow drying it on a cool setting with a volumising product will help to create the illusion of volume and make your hair look thicker with little effort.

Get Your Vitamins

Hair loss and thinning can be a knock-on effect of vitamin deficiencies, usually vitamin D or vitamin B12. Many reports now suggest that “multivitamins” are of little use as our body simply excretes them before they have a chance to be absorbed, but taking individual vitamins, or getting them through your food, can still be beneficial. Liver is a good source of BOTH vitamin B12 and D, as are eggs and cheese.

Avoid Heat Styling

One of the biggest causes of damage to hair is heat styling, either with straighteners or curling irons, so avoiding using these when your hair is thinning is a good idea. Opt for straightening with a soft brush and cool blow dryer and curl with rags or soft curlers, depending on the diameter of the curl you want.

Keep calm and get flipping

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Pancake Day, officially known as Shrove Tuesday, is heading our way and we are super excited!

The great thing about pancakes is that as well as tasting great they are easy to make and a really sociable way of cooking. Family and friends can all help with making the batter, fillings are a totally personal choice and of course, everyone likes to get involved with the flipping.

To avoid pancake disasters on the day, we suggest you get some practice in over the next week. For a basic, but brilliant batter, you will need:

140g plain flour
200ml whole organic milk
2 large free range eggs
Table salt
25g unsalted, melted butter
Vegetable oil (it has no taste)

With everything ready, sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a medium-size bowl. Create a shallow hole in the middle of the mix then add the milk and break your eggs into the hole and slowly whisk it altogether. Add the water, whisking constantly, until you have a smooth, lump free batter.

Keep the batter covered and leave it to settle for around 30 minutes, after this time you can whisk in the melted butter, again until your mixture is smooth.

Put a little oil in a non-stick pan and place on a medium heat.

Once hot, pour around two tablespoons of your batter into the pan and swirl around the based ensuring it is evenly coated.

The idea is to create a thin, delicate, crepe so you only need to cook for around one minute on each side.

If you are brave enough, flip your pancakes and hope for the best but for the more cautious cooks out there, use an egg slice to turn.

Once you have a stack of pancakes, it is time to get to work with toppings.

Sweet, savoury, healthy, naughty, skinny, loaded, sugary, veggie, fruity or plain, you can be as creative as you like when it comes to pancake fillings and toppings.

We are torn between sweet and savoury here at Pure Beauty, but our favourites, in no particular order, are:

Melted cheese and baked beans.

Fish fingers with lettuce and mayo – yes, really!

Ham, onions and blue cheese.

Peanut butter and ice cream.

Strawberry jam and whipped cream.

Chocolate sauce and marshmallows with a scoop of cookie dough ice cream.

Courgettes with feta cheese and red pepper.

Chicken and garlic mushrooms.

Soft fried egg and spinach with black pepper.

Rhubarb compote and organic, vanilla ice cream.

Kiwi fruit and blueberries with a drizzle of maple syrup.

Bacon with cheese and sun dried tomatoes.

Pulled pork with apple sauce.

Smoked salmon and cream cheese.

Banana and mango with crème fraiche.

Cooked apples with salted caramel sauce.

And of course, sugar and lemon.

Don’t forget, you can change your batter so it is gluten free, or use whole wheat flour instead of plain.

Pancakes are perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, so don’t keep them for just one day of the year, enjoy them all the time.

Have fun making your pancakes and let us know your favourite fillings.

Team Pure Beauty